6. Henry Barakat's Doaa El Karawan (The Nightingale prayer)

Review coming soon

5. Jiří Menzel's "Skřivánci na niti" (Larks on a string)

Early years of communism were the hardest in Czechoslovakia. Bohumil Hrabal's short story collection "Larks on a string"  became Jiri Menzel's inspiration for his second film and  collaboration with Hrabal. The film was produced by the state-run  Barrandov Studios which later censored  and shelved the film under the regime's oppression. 

A Philosophy professor, a lawyer, a saxophonist together with other so call bourgeois men come together briefly in this scarpeyard. They  cherish the freedom of  their past, endure the work of the present and dream of their future  plans. They are indoctrinated and reeducated to abide by the regulations imposed by the communist regime of the 1950's. Their only entertainment is sneaking in the evenings to watch the women convicts. These men's plans are also overheard by the women themselves. Although they work in the same location yet they are segregated as the women convicts are closely supervised by their guardman. Their dull routine days are broken by visits by a Television crew, a Union labour, a school trip. They take pride in those workers who reflect the future of this nation. However failing to notice the  dismay of some of them who covertly express their unhappiness at the current political situation. This scrapyard that tears up their past will gain them some hope for their future. The youngest student falls in love. The guard gets married. In the darkness of their times, they are optimistic and hopeful for their future. But the film questions how those years tried to eliminate the uniqueness of an individual by trying to make everyone look alike, engage in the same things. Work is a sacred code. The graffiti and slogan assert this point. The youngest Pavel is soon to get married. He's elderly mother takes comfort in sleeping after a long day of work rather than share her son's joy or hear about his matrimonial plans. 

The subject matter is dark and absurd yet enlightening towards the end. No matter what kind of regime is in control, the human spirits isn't broken. Being fed, falling in love, marrying and caring for children will always be significant in anyone's life. Jaromir Sofr's eye brings out the subtle connections these women and men have with each other. 

Jiri Menzel's lyricism equally delivers a  serious subject matter into a compassionate film.  He is part of the 60's  Czech new wave. He studied film at Famu Film School. In France, the  French new wave filmmakers were defining cinema and likewise in Czechsolvakia. Jan Němec, Milona Formas and Vera Chytilova contributed to this New wave, lasting a decade. Menzel's first film won him an Academy award for Closely Watched Trains. But Larks of the string won him the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 20 years after it was made. 

4. Luchino Visconti's Le Notti Bianche (White Nights): A fairytale love story

Love. A sentiment that grows on one unexpectedly. It could bring  two strangers together, broadens one's knowledge of life, makes one gain faith in oneself but most of all transforms one. This is what happens to the characters in Luchino Visconti's Le Notti Bianche, an apt adaptation of Fyodor Dosteovsky's 1858 short story White Night.

A fairy tale where  the one who believes in love the most triumphs at the end. A young girl, Natalia (Maria Schell) living with her blind grandmother falls in love with the first man she sees, the tenant (Jean Marais) Her feelings grow for  him almost immediately. They have to part and he promises to meet her in a year’s time. And she decides to wait. But when the date comes for them to meet, she is disappointed not to find him. Waiting in the city, she encounters a lonely man Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) who is new to the city and spends his hours at night walking alone, in deep thought. Through the telling of her past, we find out more about them. A young girl who is living a very sheltered life and a man who is free to enjoy the liberty of a city. But he  prefers to experience the dreamy side of the city. So he spends time with Natalia. At times, she's weary yet he manages to withstand her hysterics, sadness, mood swings and uncertainty. He in turn falls in love with her until he too is heart broken when her first lover appears. She  goes back to living his life the way he used to. Dosteovsky's  story was also adapted to the screen by Robert Bresson, Nights of a Dreamer (1971) a colored and more minimalist approach to the adaptation with the story taking place in Paris. 

The space renders a precise location where the story takes place over four nights. The film shows them all interconnected. A love story that blurs the boundaries between the imagination and reality is the central theme of  this film. The film won the Venice Silver lion (1957). Satyajit Ray's second film in The Apu Trilogy, Aparajiti took the Golden Lion. Mario is the sweet and wise gentleman, who thinks he can control his feelings. He soon finds himself trapped in the fervour of  love. With it comes suffering and now both experience its bitterness. The only time they forget about love and enjoy themselves is when they dance to the rock and roll tune of  Bill Haley and His Comets's 13 women and one man in a dancing club/ restaurant. 

The director of photography is Giuseppe Rotunno also know for his work on Fellini's Amarcord. The lighting and photography  blurs the realms of reality and illusion, highlighing Visconti's astute visionary style of using medium and long shots, stylised lighting to  tell this story. Shadows  fall over the walls, the passing boats, the passersby, the lamp posts, the opening and closing of the wooden venetian shutters and precise framing. Although Le Nottie Bianche is an exception to Visconti's other films, including his first feature film Ossessione based on the novel The postman always rings twice.  He used the same medium and long shots to tell this story, creating the fantasy-like mood that is characteristic to this setting. Visconti's mise en scene translates the inner worlds of Mario and Natalia. 

This space was  created in a studio. It  plays a significant role in the telling of the story because it enables Mario and Natalia to meet, part, lose each other and find back each other over the bridge, hiding in the street corners and taking a boat.

Visconti together with Rosselini and De Sica were the forerunners of Italian neo-realism cinema in post-world war  Italy. He continued to adapt various literary texts to film like The leopard and Death in Venice. 

3. Mohsen Amiryoussefi’s Khab-e talkh (Bitter Dreams) To the late Abbas Esfandi

Mohsen Amiryoussefi’s film Khab-e talkh (Bitter Dreams) is an honoury tribute to the gravedigger Abbas Esfandi and other workers at the cemetery  in the ancient town of Sedeh in Iran.

Abbas Esfandi has been working for 40 years as  a grave digger until his over fatigue makes him fall ill. And slowly anticipate his own death. He strikes a dialogue with uncle Ezrael, the angel of death. He follows a monotonous routine; waking up, burying corpses,   invading his workers’ privacy through his binoculars, watching the programs on his Television set and visiting his friend at the local bath Hamam, whom he’s known for over 40 years. As his coming days are numbered, so  he starts to appreciate people around him more. Now, he plans each coming day. So he exercises, and  tries to enjoy life more to prolong his days. Having not married and without kids, he starts to appreciate the things that he missed doing at a younger age. This is exhibited by his thoughts to Delbar Ghasri , the lady who washes the women corpses. He tries to make up for the regrets of his past. There are some harsher tasks that he has to perform to complete his duty as a gravedigger. His only successor is a kid, whose sole job is burning the clothes of the dead ones and collecting their belongings. He has to go through the arduous task of training him.

Amiryoussefi started making shorts. He is known for the short documentary Caravan screened at the Clermont Film Festival and Stone hands. And his earlier documentary style influences the narration style of his debut film. The Television set plays the role of the present and future. At first, we seem to be following a live documentary about the people in the grave. And slowly, it becomes a source of information for the future. 

Vignettes of a broadcast channel interviewing the workers, switching through channels, and his thoughts are all intermingled leaving us to distinguish the relevance of each. Finally one image becomes lasting.

A man’s solitude. He prepares to leave behind a beautiful tombstone with a poem carved on it for people to remember him by. He becomes overly concerned with who will wash him and where he will be buried. 

Together with Bayran Fazli, Youssefi has weaved  outstanding experimental and documentary techniques in making this well-crafted picture. The handheld camera emphasises Esfandir’s Ezrael’s visits. Amiryoussefi is exceptional in telling the story of a human being fighting the truth of mortality. 

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2. Dariush Mehrjui's Gaav (Cow): Portrait of a village

Dariush Mehrujui’s second film Gaav (Cow) is masterly crafted to show a portrait of a remote village, in Iran. His raw depiction of life there becomes the very reason that  leads officials in Iran to censor the film in 1969, under the rule of Shah.

Nothing happens in this village. Men drink tea, others spend their hours idle, women cook, villagers are obsessed by the bandits stealing their sheep. Children chase a dumb young villager foretelling their future. Superstitious villagers are concerned with the evil eye and performing religious rites. Even too concerned with the matters of others. And so Masht Hassan (Ezzatolah Entezami) cow becomes the centre of attention being the only one who owns a cow. He holds a lot of pride and affection. But, this one and only possession will turn to be a curse that will lead him astray. What is one to do when you’re surrounded by people of a village that you can’t belong to yet can’t escape from? His adoration, love and kindness is depicted through the tenderness he displays to his pregnant cow. Hassan derives his joy and purpose of life from this love. But not for long. He goes away for a day and when he comes back, he finds it missing. But the whole village anticipates his arrival and conceals the truth. Not even his wife can confront him, revealing the nature of their relationship. The false collective power that leads to destruction as when the whole village reaches a consensus to lie to Hassan. A delirious Hassan surfaces. His grief propels him into becoming delusional, believing that he is the cow. The villager’s attempts to save him. In fact, throughout this process, we discover their cruelty. And, it is the ways in which they choose to react and talk to him that puts us into a position of understanding Hassan’s relationship with his cow and now his sorrow after it’s absence from his life.

Mehrujui’s precise staging of the villagers as they get to gather, disperse, wait for Hassan gives these scenes a theatrical perspective. Elderly men holding the black flags with the panja on top of it disappearing on the hilltop lends a haunting feeling to the film. Shadows  trudge across scenes. Eyes are solemnly  lit to bring us closer to the souls of these people. 

Mehrjui studied Philosophy at the University of California, in Los Angeles. He has won a number of accolades for his work including the Venice film festival critic’s award in 1971. He continued to collaborate with actor Entezami on The Postman, The Cycle,  The School and other titles. After the revolution, he traveled abroad. His post revolution films include Leila starring Leila Hatami and The Pear Tree starring Golshifteh Farahani. As Mehrjui stated in an interview "I was very much influenced by the Neorealism in Italy and also the classical films of Eisenstein or even Griffith and some of these films which they categorise as art films...the first thing that I learned from Neorealism was to just look for the reality of your own...not the others. Try to be just yourself and try to seek out the reality inherent in your culture, in your society, and the closer you go, the deeper you go into that, the more universal it will be.”

Ignorance will overshadow a village and religious rites cannot pull a village out of darkness. If people don’t take action in making change than the next generations will follow in their footsteps. The cow is symbolic to many things; nationalism, political ideology, money. We become deluded as individuals when we become slaves to our possessions. And our only salvation is to work and enlighten each other. Nikolai Gogols’ short story The overcoat comes to mind. A story of a government clerk who saves money to buy a new overcoat that gets stolen. Unable to find those who stole it, this event leads to his illness and finally, to his death. The idea of one refusing to be human reminds me of acclaimed Japanese director Shohei Imamura's short film  from the 9/11 segment. It tells the story of a prisoner, who after returning home from war metamorphoses into a snake startling his family members. He's popular for portraying vignettes of nature and animals in his films. Gaav illustrates how a feeble mind encloses an individual. Surrounded by ignorance, one becomes mad.

Fereydon Ghovanlou, the director of photography of this brilliant work brings out the nuances in the faces of the village, yet all of them  are doomed with the same fate. This is true in the emotions revealed on the  grim faces of the villagers as they perform religious rites. His sensibility of light design makes this an unforgettable black and white art film.

Mehrujui’s film’s simply story has touched hearts both in Iran and on the international circuit. A beautiful black and white art project with a grim subject matter. This  film is a joy to watch. It proves that it's possible to make an art film that wins the hearts of many.

1. Amir Naderi's "Tangsir" (Tight Spot): A revolutionary film relevant today.

Citizens may be deprived of their rights but people supersede any form of injustice when they come together. Amir Naderi’s film “Tangsir” paints a picture of camaraderie among townsmen, made prior to  the revolution in Iran. “Tangsir” is really about men standing for what they believe in. Making this a revolutionary film. The script is based on Sadegh Chubak’s first novel, published almost a decade before the release of this film. He is a well-acclaimed short story writer in Iran.

The story is about Zaer Mohamed (Behrouz Vassoughi), a rural-worker, working at times as a well -digger to provide for his family. He earns a meagre income, allowing them to take shelter under a tent along the shore. He has entrusted four men with his savings  in return for a small interest.They hold prominent positions  as mayor,  judge, police chief and merchant. This is a practice common in small towns of Iran. When the time comes to withdraw money, these men forget their promises and refuse to give him back his money. In expressing his troubles, Zaer asks the other men in the village what to do. They reaffirm the idea that he should turn to God. To trust that He will punish them for their bad deeds. This question of when becomes pivotal to the structure of the story. What happens when a country’s lawlessness drives a man to take responsibility? The story is set in Daavas near to the Iranian coastal province of Bushehr. Zaer seeks to become a real Tangsir. This will have a great impact on his town and fellowmen hence the title of the film.

Naderi is at his best when showing the flip-coin side of Zaer’s character from a rural worker to a gunman. And the capacity in which one turns into the other depending on circumstances. Fighting injustice and taking revenge is a way of survival. This is one of the eminent themes in the film. Zaer takes it upon himself to do something about these four swindlers in the story. Reminiscent of what  drives Raskolnikov in Fyodor Dosteovsky’s “Crime and Punishment” in getting rid of the greedy pawnbroker. There is ample space in the film to think whether one is capable of doing the same. 

Nemat Haghighi’s visuals support the narration. His collaboration on Naderi’s third film and first cinemascope brings out many contrasts. The openness of the landscape contrasts with the claustrophobic alleys. His camera captures a man’s transformation and the effect he has on his people. Stunning shots display the chaos in the town. Well-thought out compositions of men running around, the police on horses dispersing crowds, the riots and fatalities on both sides including women and men.

Vassoughi's miminalist performance displays Zaer’s internal dilemma. He will make the decision whether he will wait or not. Not being able to get back his money weighs on his shoulder because he has to protect the welfare of his family. But he’s also about to put himself in danger and put his family at  greater risk if he sought after revenge. Vassoughi expresses this dichotomy very well. He is an Iranian star who appeared in several Iranian pre-revolutionary films. Most recently, he has played the role of Sahel in Bahman Ghobadi’s “Rhino Season” (2012).

“Tangsir" is an elegy to the state of human condition. Zaer believes in getting rid of the swindlers and saving other men from their vermin. Comparisons can be drawn between Zaer and Mohamed Bouazizi, a vendor who became a catalyst in the Tunisian revolution in 2011, after setting himself on fire. The action of both these men are so severe and drastic but they are both supported by their people in defending their cause. They become heroes. Making the subject matter of this film very relevant to this day.

 Naderi is also known for “The Runner” made in 1985, before traveling to the United States of America. He is one of the leading figures in the new wave of Iranian cinema of the 70’s. Other directors of this movement include Mohsen  Makhmalbaf and Abbas Kiarostami. 

                                                            Here is a sneak peak from the film.